Search Cartoonneck Work

Ancient places of worship in Liguria 9

Caranza: the Rennes-le-Château of Liguria

Rennes-le-Château, a name familiar to anyone interested in the Templars and of mysteries, is a rural town in the Languedoc, in southwestern France. Many, too many legends have been built around this village, some deliberately falsified, others only due to ignorance and ugliness of some fictional international storytellers.

It is said that here is the Holy Grail, guarded by a secret society, it is said that Jesus, not died on the cross, after marrying Mary Magdalene (!) has migrated here to start a new dynasty, was a priest with fabled esoteric inclinations, in other words, it is distorted and discredited, more than ever all that we can truly historic be at Rennes.

In any case, beyond all the bogus theories that do not interest us, we can identify a historical fact.

In 1891, during the restoration of the church of Santa Maddalena, was found anything. This is not a treasure, rumored as novelists, but some archaeological findings, telling the history of the church. Saunier said the pastor, it seems, have found an ancient tomb and other contemporary objects, which was never made clear, however, the amount and type. However, at the end of the restoration, it looks like the will of the pastor, the gateway to the church was carved this sentence from the Bible (Genesis, 28, 17): "Terribilis est locus iste. Haec domus est et porta coeli of ".

But what unites the well known village of Rennes with the anonymous Caranza, near Varese Ligure, a tiny settlement at the foot of the Passo di Cento Croci?

Just that sentence. The incision "Terribilis east locus iste", in fact, lies on the lintel south (side) of the church of San Lorenzo. This church

is somewhat atypical. Imposing, tall, does not seem to have in common with crabs the country, however, is a small cluster of houses in rural areas. The church is well after the reconstruction of 1935, remembered in a plaque, which took place 40 years after its destruction by a major earthquake in the late nineteenth century. At a hundred feet south of the church (opposite the portal above) is the bell tower, very high, and popular bill has just been restored.

seems strange to find a church so impressive in a village so small, with the biblical quotation engraved on one side and the back door bell so distant. But first things first.

Meanwhile, it is necessary clarify that the "east Terribilis locus iste", apparently so disturbing, not only appears in Rennes and Caranza but in many other Italian and European churches. It is a passage in Genesis, a quote entirely plausible in a church. However, this move tells a story that, for our investigation reveals meaningful. Here, to let the writing speak for itself, the entire biblical passage:

This episode in the life of Jacob needs to be explained that, because of the combination of confusing different mythologies, typical of the Old Testament, it is quite complicated. First it is noted that, although the majority of biblical exegetes is so determined not to admit it, Elohim is not an epithet referring to Yahweh which is, in fact, the proper name of God, the famous Jewish tetragrammaton. Elohim is the plural of Eloah, which means divine generation, but which, in Jewish tradition, often indicates angels, divine beings and, occasionally, not divine. It is clear that this is an ancestral term with different meanings. In any case - and it is very clear in the passage quoted above - Yahweh Elohim is a different entity from that, however, is the "god of Abraham."

"Jacob went out from Beersheba and went towards Harran. Then it happened in a certain place, where he stopped to spend the night because the sun had set, and took a stone, the sanctuary, he put a pillow of his head and lay down in that sanctuary. And he dreamed of seeing a ramp on the earth, and the top reached to heaven: and behold, the angels of Elohim ascending and came down to it. And then Jehovah was upon him, saying: "I am the God of Abraham, Yahweh, your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give you and your seed. And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth and you pour it out to the west and east, north and south. And you will be blessed in all the families of the earth and in your seed. And here I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and then I'll return to this country, why not leave you without first I did everything I told you. " Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Truly Yahweh is in this place and I did not know!" Then he was afraid and said, "How terrible is this place! This is nothing less than a House of Elohim and the door of heaven. " He got Jacob in the morning, took the stone he had placed a pillow of his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the sacred summit. Then called the place Beth-El (but before the name of the city was Luz.) And Jacob made a vow, saying, "If Elohim will be with me and guard me in this journey that I am doing and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return in peace to the land of my father, then I will be Yahweh as Elohim. And this stone which I have erected a pillar will be a sacred house of Elohim and all that you give me I will certainly offer the libation. "(1)

So we see that Jacob, who started from the city of Beersheba, where he was, is directed to Harran, a city in Mesopotamia who was home to a large religious center with its ziggurat. However, the evening fell on his journey, Jacob rests in a "certain place" that is a sanctuary, using a stone as a pillow. His dream divination is, in fact, a sort of incubation, a practice common in antiquity, which consisted in falling in a temple or other sacred place to get in touch with the local deity. This ritual was already customary in Greece and Egypt, as well as in some Eastern nations. During incubation, Jacob meets Yahweh, the God of his father (but, obviously, not his) that promises prosperity and protection. On awakening from the dream, he makes a very meaningful ritual: erecting the stone on which he slept as "sacred pillar" and anoints to consecrate it. This is the point crucial episode that, in addition to revealing one of the many pagan practices of the ancient nomadic Jewish tribes, is the direct link to Caranza, Rennes and probably other similar churches.

As we now know, in fact, the majority of Christian churches were built on the ruins of pagan sacred areas. This occurred or for reasons of syncretism, converting the ancient sacred sites that the Gentiles had no intention of abandoning, or to crush, oppress, and close (in a tomb) the ancient cults and their many gods and superstitions.

Frequently, as in other regions in Lunigiana, were walled up in the altar of the church that it was intended to supplant the idols, and in fact only in the territory of Lunigiana are altars that surround the stele-statues, menhirs, tombs on the box or even strains of sacred trees.

Well, it is possible that during the restoration and reconstruction in Rennes Caranza, have unearthed the remains of pagan idols - even sacred stones - that had been walled into the foundations of the church? Probably yes.

In Rennes, as, say, the pastor Saunier recorded the discovery of a tomb of some ancient remains. A Caranza, despite the absence of documentation, it is absolutely plausible that something has been found, since in the area, not far from town, there are the prehistoric remains of a fortification, which testify to the presence of an ancient community.

said, it is easy to imagine how the care of two parishes, seeing the findings that emerged from the ground, and thought of the passage in Genesis on the erection of a sacred stone by Jacob and this, perhaps , to give reasons for writing the input side. The meaning of the quotation can be twofold: on the one hand could be interpreted as the triumph of the "true god" already present ("Yahweh is in this place and I did not know!") about false idols, crushed by the enormous weight of the imposing church. On the other hand, the quote could also reveal a misunderstanding of findings by the care, which they believed to be in front of the foundation stone of the temple, thinking that it was not unusual for church planting in the way described in Genesis 28 , 17, chose the words of Jacob afraid to celebrate the discovery. This hypothesis, however, seems unlikely.

To prove the first hypothesis, however, is the interpretation of the final part of the passage quoted, in which Jacob promises, not before he set out a number of conditions, to build on a stone temple and dedicate it to Yahweh, and only then "I will be like Jehovah Elohim."

Jacob was faithful to other gods (Elohim), but if Yahweh really fulfill its promises, he will return to his personal pantheon ("I will be like Elohim"). So the episode refers to a kind of conversion.

addition, the name chosen by Jacob to name the place, Beth-El, according to some scholars is derived from the name of a deity worshiped in the Semitic area, call Bêt'ili . (2)

Note, finally, that the ritual incubazionale consecration of the stone (in Hebrew massebah ) was forbidden, then by the Deuteronomic law.

Although these data certainly suggest to the discovery of objects of pagan worship, rather than early Christian ornaments.

This could be, therefore, the explanation of the enigmatic inscription in Rennes-le-Château and Caranza. Regarding the latter, however, remains difficult to explain the strange architecture of the church and the south because the door was bricked up. Perhaps the fact that the entry faces south is a sign that right there, in the courtyard that separates it from the bell tower, hides the past of people who lived in Liguria Caranza. Perhaps, the same bell tower was built, as is often found on the base of a tower or other existing buildings, and this would explain its position very unusual.

In any case, the church of San Lorenzo Caranza deserves further study, even from some enigmatic bas-reliefs walled up in the rectory, which are equal only in the nearby village of Porciorasco, twin town Caranza , a few miles away, and that would seem to be symbols templar (3).

Notes:
(1) E. Testa, Genesis , Milan, Edizioni San Paolo, 1999
(2) However should be pointed out that, in Hebrew, Beth-El means "Place of El".
(3) Enrico Calzolari, Lunigiana, land of the Templars , Marne Publishing